Impactfully No. 62: A career change written in code
This week, Codecademy makes it easy for anyone to learn to code, Wolf & Badger helps consumers shop their values with confidence, and Xwing pushes the boundaries of autonomous flight.
Changing careers can be easier said than done, especially once you hit that mid-career moment. Once we've built our expertise, it can start to feel like other avenues are closed off or that there's too much to lose by changing course now.
But change brings opportunity, and there's nothing stopping us from learning new things. At one point, you knew nothing at all: experience and intelligence are two different things. With time and practice, we're off to our next big thing.
That brings me to our featured company this week, Codecademy. I took classes from them years ago that helped give me the skills I needed to start One Work, and they've helped millions of people turn coding into a new career.
As a learner, I was lucky to meet a number of their team members when they were building a new service: curriculum developers, product managers, and community managers. All were fantastic people I would have loved to work with, and that's why I think this company is worth a look. Great mission, good people – that's what makes work meaningful.
Codecademy and more great companies await you below. Here are this week's job opportunities:
Codecademy is an online learning platform that makes it easy for anyone to learn to code. Their benefits are particularly solid, including unlimited vacation time, paid parental leave, and remote work options.
- Technical Solutions SME – PM & Agile – Remote
- Curriculum Developer - ML/AI Specialist – Remote
- Curriculum Developer - Web Development – Remote
- Project Manager - Curriculum – Remote
- UI / UX Design Subject Matter Expert – Remote
- Senior Analyst, Business Intelligence – Remote
Kodiak is developing self-driving trucks that can operate autonomously on highways, without the need for a human driver. This is an industry with a major impact on climate change and the economy, and autonomy helps address those challenges. They have a lot of internship opportunities which start in January of next year – social impact + cool technology + California weather in January sounds pretty good to me!
- Senior Accountant – Mountain View, CA
- Senior Product Manager (Kodiak Driver)
- Sensor Hardware Engineer – Mountain View, CA
- Software Engineer, Controls
- Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning Infrastructure
- Senior Software Engineer, Sensor Fusion & State Estimation
- Software Engineer, Simulation
- Full Stack Engineer Internship – Mountain View, CA
- Intern Systems Engineer, Verification & Validation – Mountain View, CA
- Intern, Deep Learning for Computer Vision – Mountain View, CA
- Intern, Perception – Mountain View, CA
- Intern, Simulation – Mountain View, CA
data.world is a public benefit corporation and Certified B Corp helping democratize data in organizations. One of the ways they give back is through matching donations to charities selected by their employees each year. If you want to work on the cutting edge of data science, this could be the job for you.
- Account Executive (Multiple Regions) – Remote
- Operations and Support Engineer – Remote
- Partner Development Representative – Remote
ev.energy is making it cheaper and greener for people to charge their electric vehicles at home with an app that helps them identify the best time to charge. They have a small, distributed team working out of the U.S. and the U.K. with lots of flexiblity and a unique EV benefit to help you switch to an electric vehicle.
- Senior Sales Director - North America – Remote
- VP of Utility Sales – Remote
- Senior Product Manager - VPP – Remote
- Group Product Manager - Energy Management – Remote
- Senior Project Manager, Utilities – Remote
- Senior Backend Engineer – Remote
- Senior Mobile Engineer - Utilities – Remote
Rachio produces smart sprinkler controllers that sense the saturation of your lawn and reduce the amount of water used to keep it pristine. I think of it as the Nest Thermostat for sprinkler systems. They're looking to grow their Utility sales channel, so if you enjoy sales and are passionate about conservation, this is a great opportunity.
- Senior Manager of Utility B2B – Remote
Cotopaxi is fighting inequality in Latin America with sustainable adventure gear. They donate a portion of sales to support nonprofits working on healthcare, education, and livelihood, and the company is carbon-neutral. This is a great fit for those who love getting out in nature and working at the intersection of sustainability and inequality.
- Product Coordinator – Salt Lake City, UT
- Retail Development - Project Manager – Remote
- Retail Store Manager – Boise, ID, Seattle, WA or Boulder, CO
Wolf & Badger is making sustainable and ethical shopping easy and accessible for everyone. Consider the number of places you can shop and the challenge of finding the ones that share your values. The idea here is that someone has already done the vetting for you. The PR and Events Manager role is all about getting the word out about Wolf & Badger, and one of the things I like about it is how you'd work with a team in the U.K.
- PR and Events Manager - Ethical Fashion – New York, NY
Greyston Bakery is a bakery that provides jobs and job training for individuals who face barriers to employment, such as homelessness or incarceration. They also invest in the local community through their nonprofit arm – Greyston Foundation is hiring as well.
- Sales Manager – Yonkers, NY
- Senior Financial Analyst – Yonkers, NY
- Continuous Improvement Manager – Yonkers, NY
- Employee Development Manager – Yonkers, NY
- Director of Development – Yonkers, NY
Xwing is building software that enables autonomous flight – one of their major milestones is making the first autonomous cargo flight, which is a key focus area. In a sense, they're meeting the same need as Kodiak but applied to different shipping routes, particularly those that serve smaller, more remote communities. It's very impressive stuff in a transformative technology area, and they need highly-experienced people to help lead the way.
- Director of Quality – Concord, CA
- Lead Software Certification Engineer – Concord, CA
- Program Management Lead – Concord, CA or San Francisco, CA
- Senior Technical Program Manager – Concord, CA or San Francisco, CA
- Senior Software Engineering Manager – Concord, CA
- Staff Software Engineer - Backend – Concord, CA
- Director, Business Development – Concord, CA or San Francisco, CA
DEPT is a major, global creative agency and Certified B Corp working on all things branding, marketing, and technology. Although they work in multiple impact areas, I'm most impressed with their climate initiatives. They are also working on growing the amount of social impact work in their portfolio.
- Account Coordinator, Social – Remote
- Account Manager, Programmatic – Remote
- Core Technical Architect – Remote
- Head of Marketplaces Sales NAM – Remote
- Sr. Account Manager, Programmatic – Remote
- Staff Accountant – Chicago, IL
If your foray into social impact comes with a career change, I just want to say: you can do it.